There is a certain irony that the month of April is School Library Month due to the fact that April is often testing month where the school library is closed for weeks. However, rather than be depressed about limitations, you will often see a school librarian in the hallway, checking out books, checking them in and finding ways to help students and faculty alike. How can we operate without our room?!

Here’s the secret: The School Library/ Media Center/ Learning Commons extends beyond the walls of one room AND your school librarian/ media specialist is an #edtech expert.

For the month of April, I invite my students and teachers to try something new. Lets use an electronic book or resource. Students are incredibly fast about sharing casual information on the internet. Maybe they can share some for school. Have you taken a quiz to see if you tell Real from Fake yet? (The answers come when you submit the quiz.)

The first week of April this year is our Spring Break. So, of course, I have a project. Because my high school students are either testing or studying, I’ve decided to create a bookmark for them that’s a coloring page. But I don’t want to buy a generic “READ” coloring bookmark. I want to give them one that has a message or encourages silliness. After all, my students need a break! So I’ll create an image in PowerPoint (or anything really) and save it as a .JPG. Then I will use Pixlr to create a coloring page image. Fun for the students (and me)!

I have new mousepads to surprise the students with when they come in. Thanks to @Hafuboti, these are in different colors, languages and images that all say “Libraries are for everyone“.

And while it’s the end of the year, we should always have a book list going. Students and teachers and administrators need to feel comfortable making suggestions. Yes, they can email me. But maybe this Book List Padlet will help when they spot a book they want to just put the book title or link or subject right on the Padlet.

How to you extend your library? Share your thoughts by comments, Padlet, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or any other social media you can think of. We are all looking for the best ideas. Share!